Love in the Valley by Susan Napier (HR 2711)

Julia Fry is Cordon Bleu trained personal chef living and working in Auckland, NZ - she's very much in demand and whenever her regular employer is away he puts her on retainer and she hires out on other jobs.  This time she's engaged to spend a month with the Marlows, a well-known family in the entertainment industry - mom Connie is doyenne stage actress, her husband Michael is a tempermental director/playwright, one son Steve is lead singer in a popular rockband, etc, etc., and she's known Steve's twin brother Richard (an up and coming actor) for years and enjoys indulging his sense of fun with some practical jokes and lighthearted humor.  On her way down to their retreat she gets into a car accident with G.B.H. Walton, with his Maserati rearending her ancient car when she breaks for a bird.  An inauspicious start to be sure, compounded when she finally arrives back at the house and finds Walton is eldest Marlow son Hugh! 

Hugh was adopted as a 12 yo child (and kept his last name, as apparently they do down under) and is a bit different from the rest of his family: larger, taller, not redheaded, not artistic, a lawyer, less outwardly emotional, etc. When he gives Julia a ride to the gas station after the crash, he asks after her parents, thinking she's quite young, and she spins him a story going along with that, saying she's between jobs, etc., and he buys into it.  Like I said not the best start.  Also Hugh didn't realize his family was coming down and had intended to be writing a book on law while there.  Anyway, as weeks go on Hugh gets very frustrated watching Julia have all sorts of fun and jokes with his family, but when he sees her in trouble with the twins both wanting to claim her as their girlfriend, he declares he could help her if she pretended to get involved with him instead.  And, as she's injured his fingers slamming them in the car door, she goes to his room each day (to do his typing), leaving the family to imagine what might be going on instead.  They get closer, but Julia has fallen in love, something Hugh cannot accept.  Will Hugh's rejection be permanent?

I should disclaim that Susan Napier is probably my favorite author, so of course I like this book.  I only read this after I had read a few other featuring Marlows, so it was especially fun to come back and see them when they were younger.  Although loosely connected, those books stand completely alone, as evidenced by the fact that I hadn't been aware of this one for some time.  Anyway, so this is a fun but quiet book - for the most part taking place in the house itself - more of a character drama.  Characters are quite believable and it was very interesting how Hugh's past affects his present, although the whole thinking since he was abused he might be an abuser plot thread was really quite unnecessary for me, and felt a bit more formulaic than Susan Napier usually gets (although this is one of her earliest, so we can excuse that).